To Build a Home
by OneShotFun
Summary: Spencer goes back to the house that Toby was building for her to find out if all hope truly is lost for them. [POST 7x07]


**SO MANY SPOBY FEELS! That last episode of PLL... [Spoilers ahead, as with the story, since it takes place after the episode] Toby was building Spencer the house (crying). I know he said goodbye, but I really don't believe that's the end of them. I'm almost positive that he's coming back for the finale. Agh, I just love this pairing so much. They're such a beautiful couple :( This song is just so beautiful, and the lyrics are about building a home suit them, rightfully. Anyways, on with the story, which follows the events of 7x07.**

* * *

 _There is a house built out of stone_  
 _Wooden floors, walls and window sills_  
 _Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust_  
 _This is a place where I don't feel alone_  
 _This is a place where I feel at home_

 _'Cause, I built a home_  
 _For you_  
 _For me_

TO BUILD A HOME / THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA

* * *

"Everything alright?"

Leaving her distracted state of mind, where she stared at one spot on the table and endlessly twirled her fork in the noodles on her plate, she looked upwards and faked a smile.

"Everything's perfect," she answered.

But he didn't believe her one bit.

Marco Furey furrowed his eyebrows, giving her a look of complete disbelief. There was no way that she was "perfect" right now. They were supposed to be on a nice first date, but instead, she looked miserable, and as if she wasn't paying any attention to him. Her life was a bit chaotic at the moment, and he knew that, but it hadn't stopped her from at least having a conversation with him in the past.

" _Spencer_ ," he tilted his head to the side. "Come on... is there somewhere else you need to be right now? We can always do this another time—"

"No, there's nowhere I need to be," she denied, shaking her head frantically. "I'm sorry... I'm just a bit distracted."

"That's okay," he nodded his head. He offered her a smile, and then asked, "Well, you wanna tell me what's going on in that mind of yours? 'Cause it's intriguing the hell out of me, Hastings."

She tried to smile. She tried to enjoy his flirtatiousness. But she just couldn't. She had agreed to go out with him in an attempt to move forward from her chaotic love life, but it just didn't feel right. As she was sitting there at the table in her house, all she could think about was... _Toby_. God, those sparkling blue eyes had constantly been on her mind since the night he said goodbye to her, off to live a domesticated life in Maine with his beautiful fiancé.

After another few moments of silence, Marco wasn't so calm anymore. His facial expression turned frustrated, and he set down his fork on the kitchen counter.

"Hey... look, I've always been proud of myself for being a patient guy, but I can take a hint when a girl isn't into me," he sighed. "So, would you like to just rip the bandage off already and tell me if I'm right?"

"Marco—" she started.

"No, please, just save me the excuses and get right to it, please?" he almost pleaded. "I was honest when I told you that I like you, and I've been thinking about you a lot since we had that... moment. But clearly, your mind is somewhere else right now, so tell me what it is. Is there somebody else?"

Her lip quivered, unsure of how to proceed. There wasn't really anybody else, actually. Toby had left town to be with his fiancé in a new place, making it clear that there was nothing left between them. The only real question was if she _wanted_ there to be somebody else. And she didn't know the answer to that question, because all along, she had thought her heart was with Caleb, but it didn't feel so true when Toby came to her house that night. When he told her that he had been building her a house this whole time, what she undeniably wanted was for it to end like an epic love story. But it didn't. He chose Yvonne, and there were getting ready to live a happy life together in Maine.

Marco took her lingering staring at the floor as an absolute yes. Clearly, there was someone else on her mind, or she wouldn't have been acting like this, even when he flat-out _asked her_ if there was someone else.

"Right... you don't have to confess anything to me. You don't owe me anything," Marco sighed. "This was a mistake, then?"

"It's not like that," she tried.

"But it is," he said, almost bitterly. "It is, and that's okay, Spencer. Just, a few words of advice? If there's someone you want to be with, then don't say yes when another guy asks you out. It may cause him a broken heart on the spot, but it's a lot better than feeling lied to."

"Marco, please—" she started.

"It's my bad," he put his hands up in surrender. "I didn't pick up the signals that there was another guy in your life. I'm just sorry it got to this point, but I think you should... tell him how you feel."

"It's not that simple," she sighed.

"Actually, it is. If you tell him exactly how you feel, and he doesn't do anything about it, well... then, you've got your answer. If he wants to be with you, he'll make it happen."

* * *

Spencer was driving.

She'd apologized to Marco about a million times back at her house for wasting his time. In his eyes, she could see that he was rightfully frustrated with her, but nonetheless, he kept telling her that it was okay every time. She had to applaud him for his patience with her. Most guys would have yelled a lot of hurtful things for being led on.

After her millions of apologies, he had taken his things and was out the door. Not that she was complaining, because she definitely had somewhere else that she wanted to be. Once he was out of sight, she got into her car, and just started driving. She couldn't keep second-guessing herself and wondering if this idea was stupid. The situation was complicated, that was a given. But she had to see it. It was the first time that she was going there knowing that the house was for her all along.

Obviously, he was long gone. He was probably settling himself down in Maine, having a drink with Yvonne's family while planning his future with her. All Spencer had left of him was that house.

It was a long drive, but she went through with it, despite the fact that she had very important things to be worrying about with A.D. after her. She drove her car onto the soil and stopped it there. Slowly, she opened her car door and started to get out. While looking around, her vision started to get blurry with the tears welling up. There it was... the abandoned trailer and the abandoned house he was building.

He was long gone, wasn't he?

She shut her eyes, letting the pain sink in, and turned around completely. She didn't realize how hard this was going to be when she first started driving here. She didn't realize how much it would hurt her to know for sure that he was really gone.

Finally, she opened her eyes, just letting the tears roll down her cheeks. Her vision gradually cleared up as she stopped trying to force her tears away.

And in that moment, she saw it—she saw the truck.

Her immediate reaction was pure shock. Either A.D. was pulling her leg and was actually after her, pretending to be him, or he was here. There was definitely somebody here. Her eyes stayed focused on the truck in front of her... that truck that she had given him all those years ago as a present. She just kept staring at it, even though she clearly heard the sound of footsteps that were crunching the leaves as they approached her. The presence felt too familiar.

" _Toby_..."

Too quickly, she turned around, greeted by the exact sight of what she thought she heard— _Toby Cavanaugh_.

He seemed equally as shocked to see her lurking around in the spot that the house was being built. Perhaps it was something to be embarrassed about—the fact that she was visiting this place even though they were broken up. But it didn't feel embarrassing to her. He was here, in this spot, when she thought he was long gone to Maine, and was never coming back. Maybe it really was her chance to put everything out on the table.

"Spencer," he said in a breathy voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," she furrowed her eyebrows. "Aren't you supposed to be in Maine by now?"

"I asked you the question first."

"Fine," she gave in, staring at the floor. _Now_ it felt a little bit embarrassing. "I just... I wanted to see if you were really gone. The whole thing just, um, it just didn't exactly feel real to me." To change the topic from her, she quickly asked, "And _you_?"

"I decided I'd come back to town for a bit," he confessed.

"What about Yvonne?" she asked all too quickly. "...I mean, like, what about her safety? Isn't the whole point of getting out of Rosewood to keep her safe?"

"Yeah, um..." he bit his lip. "She's still there... in Maine."

"And why are you back in town?" she asked.

"The thought of some monster after all of you was way too real for me," he explained. "I don't know what I was thinking when I left just like that. I was there when you all went through it the first time, so I know how crazy this type of person is."

"You're here because of the new A... or whatever they are?" she asked, feeling slightly disappointed, yet relieved that they had him on their side again.

"Yeah," he nodded his head. "I could never just sit back and relax in another town while I know that there's somebody after you, Spence. The thought was practically eating me alive at night."

"As much as we could use your help, you can't jeopardize what you have with Yvonne just to help us—" she began.

"I told her that I have some stuff to take care of back in Rosewood," he said, but seemed to be excessively chewing on his lip as he spoke. Spencer furrowed her eyebrows, not buying that Yvonne just accepted that he was running back to Rosewood to take care of some things. She had been on-edge ever since he first started helping them.

"Oh... and that's the only reason you're back?" she asked curiously, feeling her heart racing as she asked him the question.

"I don't know," he sighed. "I mean, there may have been some other factors... leaving just didn't sit right with me."

"Is Yvonne really okay with you being here?" she asked, still not buying his story.

He didn't answer her question. She saw him swallowing hard. He just stared at the ground for a long period of time, seemingly contemplating something deeply. Spencer took a few steps forward, coming closer to him, although there was still much distance between them. Her progression made his eyes dart upwards in a single second.

"Toby..." she muttered, giving him a sincere look.

"Alright," he nodded his head. "Um, well, it doesn't exactly matter if she's okay with me being here, 'cause... I ended things with her."

" _What_?" Spencer exploded dramatically, in complete shock.

Sure, she was expecting that he hadn't been honest with her about how okay Yvonne truly was with him returning to Rosewood, but this genuinely wasn't what she was expecting. She was expecting a big fight with his fiancé, one that they would surely fix once this A.D. thing was resolved, and he could run back to Maine to marry her. But _ending_ their engagement? It seemed a bit rash, considering how he had made it clear that he couldn't live without her.

"We sat there in Maine, and she was talking to me about our plans for the future," he started. "And I thought that was what I wanted with her, but... but as she kept talking, I just kept thinking about how something felt missing."

He locked eyes with her.

"Can I be honest with you just one more time?"

"Of course..." she answered, nodding her head.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you," he confessed, looking at her with complete sincerity in his eyes. Spencer's eyes went wide, unable to comprehend everything that was being thrown at her so quickly. Last time he said something big, it was the fact that he was building the house for her, and he broke her heart with everything he said after that, so this time, she was just going to keep her expectations low.

"So, I, uh... I told her that I can't do this," he explained, biting his lip.

Spencer felt a lump growing in her throat. God...

"Toby, what are you saying?" she asked.

"What I'm _saying_ is that the only future I've always wanted is one with you in it," he explicitly spoke. "It hurt me to go to Maine and be apart from you again, so... I just can't do that. It hurt me to say goodbye to you. That night, when I told you that I was leaving, all I wanted was for you to give me a reason not to go. So, I couldn't promise Yvonne forever when I felt that way."

"Oh my God..." Spencer sighed, her heart pounding harder than ever. She could hear it, and she felt like he could, too.

"I know, I know," he sighed as well. "It's a lot to comprehend, and everything's been so complex and crazy between us since we broke up. I get that. You had Caleb, I had Yvonne, it seemed impossible that we could ever go back to each other. But I'll make it simple..."

Spencer furrowed her eyebrows, confused by his silence.

"Would it be okay if I kissed you?" he suddenly asked.

She nearly felt like fainting, but she pushed herself enough to give him a light nod. A smile started curling on his lips as he took a few steps forward and leaned in. Gently, he pressed his lips against hers, and it felt like every complexity, obstacle, and hurdle they had to face was meaningless. All that mattered was this. All that mattered was how they felt about each other. And clearly, there was still a large fire burning between them.

He cupped her cheeks, laughing into the kiss. She let out a laugh as well, almost feeling like tearing up. It felt like home. It felt right.

"You are what I've _always_ wanted," he breathed out, pulling his lips back, but keeping his forehead and nose pressed against hers. "It doesn't matter how lost we've gotten along the way, because our future is what I want."

She was breathing heavier than she wanted to, but this situation just had her way overwhelmed. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. She opened her eyes, still hugging him, and looked at the house behind her. It was their house.

"Toby," she said, pulling back from their hug. "When we first broke up, I didn't know what I wanted in life. I wasn't ready for such a serious future, so when you made it clear that you wanted to have kids and start a life together, that scared me..."

He felt a little bit broken as he thought about the memory of them breaking up. It was one that had always pained him.

"I wasn't ready for it then, but I think... I think I am now," she confessed. "I want everything with you, okay? I want to start a life together. I want a real future with you. And we can take it slow if you want because everything is just so complicated—"

"I don't wanna take it slow," he laughed. "I've never been more sure about anyone in my life, Spencer. You're the one I want to be with." He reached over and took her hand, squeezing it gently. "I know you don't like Rosewood. It's got bad memories. So, we can go wherever you want, and we can make new memories. Good memories. I'll build you a house wherever the hell you want. I can find a new job. There are so many jobs out there, but there's only one of you."

"No, I don't want to leave," she shook her head. "This place may have bad memories, but it also has good ones. All the ones of you. We can live in this house together, and we can figure out everything. We'll figure out the jobs and the details later."

Toby grinned, brushing his thumb across Spencer's cheek lovingly. He leaned back in and kissed her again.

They were going to make a future for themselves in that house that he built for them.

* * *

 **THE END! It may be overly-cheesy, but rightfully so, considering how painful things are for Spoby fans right now. We've got all the sadness in the show, so I think there should at least be overly-happy endings in Fanfictions, right? Well, anyways, this was constructed with some spoilers and hints in there, but most of it is purely fluffy Spoby goodness. If we're lucky, maybe we'll get some happiness in 7x10.**

 **Thanks for reading! Leave a review!**


End file.
